Now, as always, we’re left with the aftermath. Two points stand out to me, and they both relate to the dangers of journalists chasing glory.

There’s no glory in being first

The tension between speed and accuracy is always highlighted in these cases. But more than that, I think this example highlights how the glory of being first is fleeting, and seeking it is a risky activity. Jim Brady put it well, “If you’re right and first, no one remembers. If you’re first and wrong, everyone remembers.”

Journalists need to do a better job calculating the risk of being first, rather than focusing on the benefit. How many people would have recalled — or cared — that Onward State broke the news? Aside from some journalists, I’d wager very few people. This kind of breaking news report spreads quickly, and whatever credit that may have gone to Onward State in the early minutes would have disappeared once the information was confirmed and widespread.

In contrast, the breaking news of the sort published by Onward State — and the traffic and retweets it brings — is just not worth it. The toll is too high in a connected world, and I hope journalists see this as a case for what Dan Gillmor calls slow news.

Our competitive drive and desire to break news needs to be applied in the right situations, and with the appropriate context and restraint.

There’s no glory in denying credit, failing to take responsibility for mistakes

One frustrating aspect of this story is that CBS Sports deemed the report from Onward State good enough to publish, but it was incredibly stingy about crediting the information initially. It seems CBS Sports wanted the glory for itself. For example, when it first passed on the Onward State report, it didn’t note the name of the publication in its tweet:

So we have two major news outlets rushing to repeat the Onward State report, but not offering the appropriate credit. Poynter Online Director Julie Moos also tweeted a link to the CBS Sports story and did not mention Onward State or CBS.

Later, once the information was proven incorrect, CBS decided to mention Onward State by name:

No credit when Onward State had a scoop, but passing the buck when the student news organization got it wrong. People noticed this when they saw the above tweet from CBS Sports:

In addition, there’s also the important question of how news organizations handled the mistake.

Earlier Saturday night, CBSSports.com published an unsubstantiated report that former Penn State coach Joe Paterno had died. That mistake was the result of a failure to verify the original report. CBSSports.com holds itself to high journalistic standards, and in this circumstance tonight, we fell well short of those expectations.

CBSSports.com extends its profound and sincere apology to the Paterno family and the Penn State community during their difficult time.

… I will be stepping down from my post as Managing Editor, effective immediately. I take full responsibility for the events that transpired tonight, and for the black mark upon the organization that I have caused.

I ask not for your forgiveness, but for your understanding. I am so very, very, sorry, and we at Onward State continue to pray for Coach Paterno.

Onward State will suffer the taint of this error for a long time, but they helped mitigate some of the damage by being fast and forthright with their reaction. CBS Sports seemed very slow by comparison, something that did not go unnoticed.

Certainly this was a very serious mistake but CBS Sports seems to be taking the brunt of the responsibility when other well-known news entities, including People Magazine, went with the story as well.

Anonymous

As Voltaire said, “In the case of news, we must await the sacrament of confirmation.”

Has anyone answered the question whether Onward State was really mistaken, or did the family hold off its announcement? When Gary Coleman died, TMZ was reporting it long before we could get any official word.

Privatdetektiv

You are right dude but braking news is only for one day or one hour, after that world moves on with another breaking news.

it would have been better to get the police involved anyway even if
nothing was going on which it was. when a kid is brought to the
hospital if abuse is even suspected the police are called without proof.

http://www.poynter.org Poynter

Thanks for posting that story, I hadn’t seen it & we haven’t linked to it. –Julie

Cameron Orr

There’s a neat post here from SB Nation explaining how they went ahead with a false report. My apologies if someone posted this already.

the need to be first, “breaking news”, is a symptom of a mental disease characterized by fear and insecurity.

http://twitter.com/BarneyMcCoy Barney McCoy

I too was inspired to blog on this last night (http://barneymccoy.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/premature-reports-of-joe-paternos-death-raise-questions-about-some-news-organizations/) and have these suggestions for what professional news organizations do when they report unsubstantiated information:
1. Immediately publish a correction with confirmed, accurate information.2. If needed, issue an apology signed by those responsible for the inaccurate report.3. Publish an editor’s note to viewers, readers and listeners
explaining what the news organization will do to prevent such mistakes
from happening again.4. Send an internal memo to news organization employees explaining what
went wrong, why it went wrong, and what it will do to prevent such
mistakes from happening again.5. Explain that repeat offenders may be suspended or fired for dereliction of duty.

http://twitter.com/BarneyMcCoy Barney McCoy

I too was inspired to blog on this last night (http://barneymccoy.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/premature-reports-of-joe-paternos-death-raise-questions-about-some-news-organizations/) and have these suggestions for what professional news organizations do when they report unsubstantiated information:
1. Immediately publish a correction with confirmed, accurate information.2. If needed, issue an apology signed by those responsible for the inaccurate report.3. Publish an editor’s note to viewers, readers and listeners
explaining what the news organization will do to prevent such mistakes
from happening again.4. Send an internal memo to news organization employees explaining what
went wrong, why it went wrong, and what it will do to prevent such
mistakes from happening again.5. Explain that repeat offenders may be suspended or fired for dereliction of duty.

Micah Grimes

There is the idealism, as evidenced in this article, of no pressure to be first, yet every journalist feels the reality that it does pay to be first.

If a reader goes to the first source, say CNN, because they see their story first and continue to see updates, they have no reason to go anywhere else. If you are not, say CNN, and you are second all the time, then readers will keep going to CNN because they have it first. As a result, no one views your content and you lose viability and you lose ability to continue to deliver news as your revenue stream vanishes.

Being first simply does pay and builds following.

Otherwise, there wouldn’t be “breaking news”.

http://twitter.com/frozenredhead Charlene Vickers

And now the family has announced that he is dead.

ETA I guess it doesn’t matter whether the original article was inaccurate or merely inconvenient to a family who had wished to wait; without confirmation from a knowledgeable, trustworthy reliable source the story shouldn’t have run.